Student Success

photo of Crizio Sinuraya's winning project

 

51福利社 digital marketing student wins first place in national Adobe competition

Imagination unleashed, paired with careful planning and execution. That is wh51福利社 Michigan University student Crizio Sinuraya brought to Adobe鈥檚 2023 Digital Edge Awards where he was named the overall winner and recipient of a $10,000 prize. The 51福利社 digital marketing and eCommerce major from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, wowed the judges with his creative yet minimalist approach to the LifeDog smartwatch campaign he submitted for the competition. From more than 1,400 entries, Sinuraya鈥檚 designs stood out as original, thoughtful, targeted and digitally literate.

LifeDog, the first smartwatch for dogs, is lightweight and resistant to bites, scratches and heavy use. The watch offers GPS tracking, activity logs, health check-up reminders and alerts for daily feeding and hydration schedules. It also converts time from human-scale to dog-scale, based on the 1:7 ratio where every human year is roughly seven years in a dog鈥檚 life. Sinuraya鈥檚 digital marketing campaign for the watch began as a class assignment in executive-in-residence Greg Gerfen鈥檚 advertising and promotion course where Gerfen requires students to submit a campaign for a patented product. Seeing the work of past students sparked Sinuraya鈥檚 desire to submit his best work.

鈥淚 was motivated to make my designs look as professional as possible and go the extra mile, so I decided to make everything, including the product illustration, from scratch on Adobe Illustrator,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t took me a few weeks to envision what I wanted to show with my ads, but after careful consideration, I decided to introduce the watch in the most straightforward way possible while still making the message relevant to the target market.鈥

Image
Target market

Sinuraya describes LifeDog鈥檚 consumers as 鈥渢echnophile dog owners鈥 who adopt the latest tech trends and whose canine companions hold a special place in their hearts. In fact, he was inspired to create this campaign because of the unique place dogs have in American culture. 鈥淭he LifeDog campaign came from a bit of culture shock that I experienced when I first moved to the United States. Here, dogs are treated with so much care and are even regarded as family members. Professor Gerfen himself did not forget to mention his dog, Winni, when he introduced himself to us in our very first class.鈥

Though Hollywood movies had introduced Sinuraya to the special place dogs hold in the U.S., observing and experiencing it firsthand was very different. He paired his newfound perspective and growing affections for animals with his design aesthetic. A self-dubbed 鈥淎pple fanboy,鈥 Sinuraya has always been drawn to Apple鈥檚 marketing concepts and wanted to create digital advertising that was powerful, yet simple, much like Apple鈥檚 iconic ads.

鈥淭his project requires students to perform the roles of several positions within an advertising agency,鈥 says Gerfen. 鈥淭hey must understand the marketing problem, set objectives, identify and discover an insight about the target audience, write a creative brief and create a campaign. Crizio excelled in all phases of the project, but what really stood out was his final presentation. His slides were elegant, impactful and complemented his presentation. His use of the Adobe platform far exceeded the requirements of the assignment and made his presentation one of the most memorable I have seen.鈥

Image
Sinuraya鈥檚 journey

But as good as Sinuraya鈥檚 work was, the journey from competence to confidence was not as straightforward as his designs. 鈥淲hen I submitted my work, all I was thinking of was overcoming my impostor syndrome and just getting my work out there,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 felt a little anxious, but I was also really excited to show the judges what I had created. I told myself to keep my expectations low to avoid getting disappointed.鈥

In the lead-up to the competition, he learned that he had been shortlisted in the top 10 for the category he had entered: business. Soon after, he was informed that he had won the competition鈥檚 top prize. 鈥淎t first, I was unsure whether I was an overall winner, or one of the four category winners. When I found out that I had won the top prize, I remember screaming and jumping in excitement. My parents and siblings were the first people that I told about this win.鈥

Crizio Sinuraya

At 51福利社, Sinuraya found a supportive network of people who encouraged and uplifted him, citing both Gerfen and Dr. Scott Cowley, associate professor of marketing, as faculty who helped him gain confidence in his skills and develop his ability to connect with others on marketing topics. During his time at 51福利社, he participated in the international Digital Marketing Competition under Cowley鈥檚 leadership where his team took second place in a field of more than 200 competitors.

Sinuraya hopes to work in the United States and secure a digital marketing position at a major airline, which taps into one of his other passions, aviation. He expects the experiences from the digital marketing and eCommerce program at 51福利社 Haworth will help his dreams take wing.

Image

Sinuraya鈥檚 winning designs

A variety of concept art and visual ad mockups for Sinuraya鈥檚 project.